Round Top’s Rick Perry Appears on Joe Rogan Podcast to Tout A New Psychadelic Therapy

Fayette County’s most famous resident appeared on the Joe Rogan Podcast last week.

Former Governor Rick Perry, who lives near Round Top, appeared on the podcast that debuted Jan. 2 with attorney and activist W. Bryan Hubbard. Rogan interviewed the two about Ibogaine, a plant-derived drug that could revolutionize the treatment of addiction, traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a range of other mental ailments including Parkinson’s Disease.

Ibogaine is a psychoactive substance derived from the tissue of certain plants native to Africa and South America. At high doses, the drug triggers an intense psychadelic experience that can cause to life-altering changes. Proponents claim it cures addiction, depression, and PTSD. At low doses, the drug shows promise as a treatment or possible cure for Parkinson’s disease. Since the 1970s, the U.S. government has classified Ibogaine as a Schedule 1 drug with “no accepted medical use.” That has made it very difficult to conduct research on the drug.

In the interview, Perry said he learned about Ibogaine through his friend Marcus Luttrell, the former U.S. Navy Seal who wrote the book “Lone Survivor” about a 2005 military operation in Afghanistan in which he was the only American to survive. The book was later made into a movie.

Luttrell came back from war with deep physical and psychological wounds. He credits Ibogaine therapy with healing his PTSD. Luttrell, along with many other veterans suffering from PTSD, have had to go to Mexico to receive Ibogaine due to its legal status in the U.S.

In the interview, Hubbard spoke about his work to start an Ibogaine initiative in his home state of Kentucky. He said it would have been Kentucky’s “Manhattan Project.” Hubbard said Kentucky has been hit especially hard by an epidemic of opioid addiction. He described Ibogaine’s ability to cure opioid addiction as “miraculous.”

But shifting political winds in Kentucky left the project dead in the water and left Hubbard without a job. That’s when he connected with Perry, who’s been lobbying Texas leaders to relaunch Hubbard’s project in the Lone Star State.

Perry and Hubbard also discussed a recent clinical study by Stanford University that tracked 30 combat veterans who underwent Ibogaine therapy. The study found an 88 percent reduction in PTSD symptoms just one month after treatment. On the show, Perry expressed confidence that Texas would launch a pilot program to offer Ibogaine therapy in the state.